Divided Serbia voting today

By Zoran Cirjakovic

Special to The Times

BELGRADE, Serbia – A divided Serbia voted in crucial elections today that offered a stark choice between closer ties to the West or a return to nationalistic isolationism that could undermine stability in the volatile region.

Pushed by outrage over the U.S.-backed secession of Kosovo, many Serbs were turning to a radical ultra-nationalist party that governed in coalition with the late dictator Slobodan Milosevic during the war-torn 1990s. After an especially nasty campaign, the Radical Party, whose top leader is on trial for war crimes, was slightly ahead in opinion surveys. Close behind was the pro-West Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic.

“These elections are going to be vitally important for my country,” Tadic, who has championed Serbia’s pursuit of membership in the European Union, said after casting his ballot. “I am totally sure that the people of Serbia are going to vote for their European future.”

An estimated 6.7 million Serbs were eligible to vote for parliament seats and mayors and city councils. “We will make Serbia a country of proud people again, we will defend our borders, we will cooperate with everyone in the world, with friends openly, and with those who show that they are not our friends, with them we will be very cautious,” said Tomislav Nikolic, the deputy president of the Radical Party, as he voted.

Nikolic, called The Undertaker because of his profession as a cemetery director, is leading the Radical Party in the absence of Vojislav Seselj, who is standing trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal at the Hague.

Neither the Radicals nor the Democratic Party were expected to win enough votes to govern alone, and the top vote-getter would be forced to form a coalition with another party. In one likely scenario, the Radicals would team with the party of current Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, also a hardline nationalist who has capitalized on Serbian resentment over the loss of Kosovo as a way to rally support.

Kostunica, who heads the Democratic Party of Serbia, and the Radicals accuse Tadic and his supporters of betraying Serbia’s core interests in courting the EU. Much of Europe supported Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in February.

If the Radicals take control of the government, Serbia can be expected to cultivate its ties with Russia and turn away, at least partly, from Europe, analysts say. And any hopes of cooperation by Belgrade with the U.N. war crimes tribunal would be wiped out.

More than a decade after the end of the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, the two most sought-after Serbian war-crimes suspects, Gen. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, remain at large.

A Radical victory would also deal a major setback to democratic reforms that Serbia has slowly enacted in the post-Milosevic transition and make life especially difficult for pro-democracy liberals by marginalizing their work.